yea it takes some serious blood and hours.
i actually had my buddy help me (all 3 times). we are both mechanically inclined and had no idea what we were doing or what to expect.
people were always like "yea it only takes 3 hours" for this and that, but it took is like 5 hours for 2 people to do this so called 3 hour stuff. the list goes on. but you and your friend could do it all in 2 days i bet assuming you both had the days completely free and a second vehicle to drive to the parts store 93467 times.
i actually have a lot of pictures in my build thread if you find that and look at the more recent pages. you might be able to scope the situation more accurately.
i will actually explain it mostly to you right now VERY roughly:
1) remove turbo/exhaust manifold
2) remove battery/intake plenum/throttle body
3) i recommend removing the radiator so you can literally stand inside the engine bay and sit on the top cross member. aw yea.
3.5) at least remove the fan clutch+fan... and remove accessory belt/loosen alternator
4) remove crank damper (always an annoying task)
5) once thats off take apart the timing covers and expose everything, then take off the timing belt and cam gears (make sure motor is at TDC although not important at all for this stage)
note: you can remove the intake runners at any point aswell but if youve had them removed before you can re-install them so that you can plan to leave them on if you remove the head. this will save lots of effort and you can just pull the head off with the intake runners still on. if youve never removed it you will encounter some issues with wiring harness below and engine grounds. horrid stuff to get at.
6) head will eb fully exposed and ready to go
7) remove valve covers and follow TSRM to remove camshafts. you need to remove them to access the head bolts
8) boom head is ready to come off. spin out the head bolts in the order on the TSRM (like i keep saying just follow the TSRM and youll have no problem
)
9) this is where you rip the head off and take it to the machine shop and they charge you $200 to take it apart/clean it/install VSS/springs and put it back together and clearance the cams. i always forget but you can tell them to leave teh cams out. my machine shop both times reinstalled them so i had to waste time removing them again at home so i could access the head stud holes.
dont quote me on that $200 tho. thats what it cost me. only took them 2 hours but they didnt have to do much in the way of clearance on mine since they were already done before.
10) head is ready to reinstall. process is reverse but here is a couple snippets:
11) prepare block/head (maybe you got machine shop to mill it a hair to flatten the mating surface) its very important to have flat surface with correct RA smoothness when using metal layer steel gaskets such as any 2jz head gasket. so dont fuck around and slack off or use crazy abrasive/sharp scrapers.
important: skip to below and put the crank to correct position before laying the head onto the block if you have interference cams. which you do.
12) put head on block dowels and then put the ARP stud washers into the block before you screw in the ARP studs hand tight. take care not to drop washer into oil/coolant galleries
13) obviously just continue until everything is put back together.
the cams are interference and like i said i would tell you about that process so here it is:
how to do timing with interference cams--->
spin crankshaft to about 10 o'clock if 12oclock is cyl#1 TDC. you want it like 5-15 degrees before TDC which will make cylinder #1 on its way back up to TDC but obviously not fully there. this will allow you to install the head without risk of bending any valves BECAUSE no piston is at TDC (aka piston 1 and 6. they will be about half to 1 inch below TDC thus giving plenty of room for even the craziest valves known to man)
then just install the head as per the TSRM. you can follow it exactly. including any cam spinning that is required. (if you havent read it gets you to tighten cam caps and then spin each cam to 12 oclock > 4oclock > 8oclock to tighten the cam caps correctly.
that process will bend the valves if a piston is at TDC.
once the head is all fully installed and torqued, you can put both cam gears at 12 oclock and then
AFTER spin the crankshaft back to 0 TDC. then install the timing belt and you are done.
i say that loosely since the process is a bit haywire because if you are like me you will probably install the bottom timing cover and crank damper to put the crank back to 0 TDC, then remove them again and install the belt....
after that its back to following the TSRM.
during these steps you will be dealing with the timing tensioner stuff.
holy shit what a long post rofl.
i have more thoughts on this but its really just a lot of rambling on so ill make like a tree and leaf you with that.